


Little Wonders

by skund



Series: These Small Hours [2]
Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-02
Updated: 2010-09-02
Packaged: 2017-10-11 10:08:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/111236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skund/pseuds/skund
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a plan, an abduction, a lot of misunderstandings and some twists and turns of fate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Wonders

“Just for the record, I am never doing that again.” Wally said, brushing the dirt from his gloves.

Green Lantern just hummed in agreement. “It had to be done and it wasn’t fair to ask those boys. They’ve been through enough today.”

“Well that’s the truth, but I never thought you had a soft spot.”

“I’ve buried teammates. It doesn’t get any easier, but the first time is always the worst.”

Wally looked back down the small shuttle to the two long boxes resting against the far wall. “Man this is messed up.”

“Part of the risks of the job.”

“Nuh uh. Laser canons, monsters and super villains fine. Nobody said anything about playing Little House on the Prairie until I die.”

John nodded towards the viewscreen, showing the view from behind the shuttle where the planet had almost faded from view. “There she goes.”

“Whoa, cutting it pretty close, weren’t we?”

“I know what I’m doing.”

“Sure, Mr Time Lord. So what are we going to do now?”

“We dock with the Lance, go home and put this whole damn disaster to rest.” John said.

“What about Superboy?”

“What about him?”

“He wants to find someone to fix this time thing.” Said Wally.

“The kid needs to learn that not everything has a reset button.”

“But-”

“Look, Batman and Superman are not the first people to die without reason. It happens.” John growled.

Wally crossed his arms but remained silent. Ten minutes later, the shuttle docked with the Lance and the ship turned and headed for home, leaving nothing but empty space behind it.

\---

Tim was still sitting in the pilot’s chair after the hubbub of turning back to Earth, but the ship was essentially flying itself. The soft swish of the door behind him broke his reverie and he turned from his contemplation of the stars to see Kon enter.

“Hey, Tim greeted.

Superboy tossed him a bottle of beer before collapsing into the co-pilot’s seat. He popped the bottle open on the edge of the console and then leaned back and put his feet up. Tim watched the whole performance without expression.

“What?” Kon asked when he finally looked at Tim.

Tim held up the beer bottle Kon had thrown at him and raised an eyebrow.

“What? I think I’m more than entitled to a beer.”

“You can’t get drunk.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t try,” Kon replied, taking a swig from his bottle.

Tim half shrugged, turning his own bottle in his hands but seemed contented just to pick at its label. Kon took another long swig of beer and settled back into the chair.

“I’m not Superman.” It was spoken so softly that for a moment Tim thought he hadn’t heard anything.

“Hmm?”

“I’m not Superman, Tim.”

“I know. No one’s saying you are. You’re you, Kon.”

“I can’t be him. I’m not… _him_.”

“Kon, I…”

Superboy turned to look at him and his eyes were dull and clouded in a way that made Tim’s heart ache all over again.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't. Don't say that. You didn't do anything. No one's doing anything. They're just gonna be-"

A chirrup from the communications panel cut Kon off and both boys glared at it balefully. Tim reached out with a gloved hand and tapped the flashing light indicating an incoming League signal.

"Robin here."

Diana's voice came loud and clear through the speakers. "This is a recorded message for the ship Lance. If you can hear this message, please respond on Emergency Channel Two. ... This is a recorded message for-"

Tim silenced the looping recording and opened a connection on the specified channel. "This is Robin and Superboy on the Lance, is everything alright?"

There was no reply. Tim repeated his greeting.

Kon frowned. "What's with the answering machine?"

Tim repeated again after a further silence.

Hawkgirl's voice finally filtered through the connection. "Robin? Robin, is that you?"

"Yes, this is Robin. What's wrong, Hawkgirl?"

"I cannot believe it! Where have you been?"

"Er, we went to investigate a lead on Batman and Superman. We found them. They're-"

"Yes, but where have you been ever since?"

"What?"

"Robin, we have not heard from anyone on your ship in almost a week."

"What?!" Kon lurched forward in his chair.

Tim was utterly silent.

"Since when were we... Oh my god."

"Are you all okay?" Hawkgirl asked.

"No, we're not okay! This is insane!"

"Are you in peril?"

"No, but someone's gonna be, that's for sure." Kon yelled.

"I do not understand-"

"We're fine, Hawkgirl. ETA two hours, standby." Tim interrupted before closing the channel.

Kon was looking at him wide eyed."Dude!"

Tim took a deep breath and tapped another control to open the ship's intercom. "You guys all need to get up here. Now."

\---

"What the hell, Mr 'I know what I'm doing' Time Master!" Wally yelled. The small cockpit felt utterly tiny with all five of them crowded around the monitors.

"I didn't... I thought I had it all figured out." John looked appalled.

"Newsflash, you didn't!"

"This is _not_ my fault. I didn't start this time thing."

Tim watched the two men argue but he could feel Kon standing behind him, radiating determination.

"Look, calm down. This unexpected and unpleasant, but it's not a disaster,” Dick stepped in.

"It doesn't have to be any of this," Kon added quietly.

"Just don't start now." John was rubbing at his forehead.

"I'm serious! You really want a lose a chunk of your life to some..." Kon made a random gesture with his hands. “Because I certainly don’t. I just failed basic chemistry again and this time I was totally gonna study for the final exam. Maybe.”

"No, of course I don’t want to lose time. But... " John sighed heavily and stopped rubbing his brow to examine Kon. "What did you have in mind?"

Kon broke into a huge grin. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask me that. I’ve been thinking.”

“Uh oh.” Dick said automatically.

Kon glared.

“Okay, what’s your plan? And when can we get it started?” John said, his patience obviously stretched thin.

“We gotta get back to Earth and pick someone up.”

“Fine, we’ll head home. You and Robin go collect whoever you need, Wally and I will go talk with the League. Nightwing I’m sure you’ve got things to attend to.” John commanded.

Everyone nodded as the Lance sped closer to home.

\---

The loud knock on the door echoed loudly down the street in the early morning quiet of suburban El Paso.

“Hang on.” A muffled yell came from inside, followed shortly by the door swinging open. “Oh, hey guys. What’s up?”

“We need your help,” Kon said levelly.

“Hey, no problem. You coulda just called me though,” came the reply around half a mouthful of toast.

“No, we need your help now.” Kon stressed.

“Yeah, but I got this major exam this morning and-whoa!”

Kon grabbed the smaller boy by the front of his shirt and took off straight up. A half eaten piece of toast fell to the ground in their wake.

A few seconds later a woman’s voice could be heard calling from further inside the house. “Jaime, who was that at the door? You need to get ready for school. … Jaime? Jaime?!”

\---

“This is starting to become a really bad habit.” Jaime sighed.

“What is?” Tim asked absently while studying a pile of data printouts Wally had just retrieved from the Watchtower.

“Getting shanghaied by Bats to save the universe.”

“You’re not saving the universe, you’re saving us,” Kon replied.

“Right, right. And can I just take this moment to say I have no idea what I’m doing?” Jaime said.

“Well, that makes two of us,” Tim replied, leaning over to read yet another pile of papers. “I can’t believe the amount of data there is. We felt like we were gone for a few hours…”

"When I got lost that time in the Bleed it felt like ten minutes to get home but it was a whole year on Earth. My parents totally freaked."

“The what?” Kon asked.

“The Bleed? It’s like this space between space, between all the different multiverses. It’s… odd. Time works differently there. Everything works differently there.”

“So we just go to this Bleed and work things out from there?”

“I dunno. This isn’t exactly simple.”

"Here," Tim muttered as he broke into their conversation, running his finger along several pages filled with numbers. "There's this repeating signal throughout all the recordings. It's really widely spaced, which is why we haven't seen it before."

"Yeah, what do you think it is?" Kon asked.

Tim picked up the pieces of paper and frowned at it. "I have no idea." He passed it to Blue Beetle who frowned at it also.

"A cyclic whotsit? Where? No. Fine, no." Jaime blinked then looked at both of them. "The scarab says he thinks it's a signal from some sort of temporal field generator, hidden around the planet."

"Awesome! We'll go back, smash it and fix everything," Kon said excitedly.

"Yeah, no," Jaime replied. "That'll- Actually, I don't know what that would do." He tilted his head to the side. "But it wouldn't undo anything that's been done."

"So we’ll need to get back to this generator before it does its mumbo jumbo, right?"

"Bingo."

"So how do we do that?"

Jaime grinned at him. "Easy! I can do all- Okay, okay, fine. _We_, the scarab and I, can do this."

\---

“You ready? We’re just about to head off again,” Tim called down to Nightwing as he jogged along the Watchtower corridor towards where the Lance was docked.

“Yeah, all done. Got all the info from the League ages ago. I just wanted to drop in on Alfred.”

“How is he?”

“Better, now. But I think he’s had a rough time of it.”

Tim sucked a breath through his teeth. “Damn.”

Dick shot him a wry smile. “Alfie’s tough but… I’ve never seen him look so frayed around the edges.”

“Did you tell him about…”

“Yeah.”

“… Oh.”

“We don’t even have time to bury…”

“It’s alright, Tim. They’d understand and we’ll keep them safe in the Lance for now. Besides, I told Alfred about this great plan you and Kon were working on.”

“It’s Jaime that knows how this stuff works. I sure as hell don’t.”

“Blue Beetle? How’s he going?”

“Good, yeah. He thinks we almost have the inklings of a plan.”

“Great, I love inklings.”

Tim snorted. “You’re an idiot. We should get going.”

\---

If Tim ended up on a spaceship again within the next ten decades it would be entirely too soon, he mused quietly. The trip back out to the planet was short but even more frantic than the last time. Tim, Dick, Kon and Wally were all sitting around the common mess table which was strewn with papers and electronic devices. The League had collected an incredible amount of data in their absent week and had recorded a number of messages for the missing heroes. They were all sifting through that mass of data while they headed back to the planet post haste.

“So why do you think we were gone a week Earth-time when it only felt like a few hours for us?” Nightwing asked as he shuffled through yet another pile of paper.

“Maybe our proximity to the planet pulled us out of time sync with the rest of the universe. Not as much as living on the planet, but still enough,” Tim suggested.

“It didn’t feel like time was moving any different,” Kon added.

“It never does, time’s relative and all that,” Wally replied.

Kon turned and gave him an odd look.

“What? You wanna know about relative time? Ask a speedster.”

“But why _one week_? Why not a year, or seven minutes or two days or something?”

“We’re dealing with broken time here, you expect it to be logical?” Tim said.

“I dunno. I hate all this time stuff, it sucks.”

“-sucks.”

“-sucks.”

“-sucks.”

Everyone else in the room finished Kon’s sentence with him. Superboy rolled his eyes.

“Fine. You guys can sit here and play junior detective. I’m going to go… do something.” With that, Kon left the room with a departing pat on Tim’s shoulder.

Wally watched him go then flicked his eyes between the Bats surrounded by the paperwork and the obvious exit. “I think I’m going to leave this to the specialists too.”

“Hey!” Dick called jokingly.

“Yeah, yeah birdboy.” Wally gave them a wave as he also left, leaving Dick and Tim alone to work.

\---

An hour later they were back, the ship hanging silently in the same patch of space. They were all gathered in the small cockpit expectantly throwing glances as Jaime, who was scrutinising the compiled information and the readouts on the screen with Tim’s help. Jaime appeared to be eyeing the Green Lantern with a similar amount of nervous energy.

“Okay, okay,” Beetle muttered quietly to himself. “Calm down, we need to focus…”

Behind him Wally leaned over to Dick and stage whispered, “So his powers are talking to things and seeing things that aren’t there?”  
Dick masked his laugh with a loud shush.

“Okay,” Jaime repeated, louder this time. “We have this cycling signal and I think we’ve got the coordinates of the source pinpointed. I just have to work out how to see it.”

“What do you need?” Green Lantern asked.

“Um, time I guess? I could always see things hidden by the Reach because I knew exactly how much they’d been offset from real space. I think the same thing is happening here – we can’t see whatever’s causing the time bubble because it’s slightly out of phase with the rest of the universe. But I should be able to work out how much and then I can see it.”

“How long?” Kon asked.

“I have no idea. There’s about a billion possible combinations and I’ve just got to keep cycling through them all until I find the- oh hey, there it is.”

“Excellent work!” John stated, leaping up from his chair. “So all we need to do now is find to way to determine when this time field was initiated and destroy it before that happens. We might need some heavy duty firepower, depending on the technology of the people involved. I should call in some additional Lanterns-“

“Actually, I don’t think that will be necessary,” Jaime said, still squinting at the object only he could see.

John arched an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

\---

Jaime was in the armour and flying through the empty space, with Superboy by his side. Green Lantern had only stayed behind after an extensive argument. Jaime had seemed a little awed having to stand up to a Green Lantern but he’d been adamant that his approach wouldn’t work in this situation. Kon was just glad to reach a stage where he could do something.

Jaime stopped suddenly and raised his hand palm upward against something Kon couldn’t see.

Beetle turned to Kon with an excited grin. “Are you ready?”

“Hell yeah!”

Jaime grabbed Kon by the wrist and somehow the whole world shifted sideways around them and surged into a swirl of red and gold and some colour Kon couldn’t quite name. They were buffeted by… something. The absence of air was different to the vacuum of space and it made Kon’s head spin.

“Hang on!” Jaime yelled over his shoulder and he flew against the torrent of nothingness.

It was all Kon could do to stay close and not let his hand slip away, but eventually Jaime shouldered against some kind of wall and the pair of them slipped out into normal space again.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!” Kon scrunched up his nose as the first rays of the giant red sun started leeching his powers. Jaime shifted his grip to wrap an arm around Kon’s shoulders.

“Come on, not far now.”

Hanging just before them, the reflection of the planet below sliding across its smooth surface, was a clear glass sphere. There was a single occupant inside, fussing with a bank of machinery. He looked up and started at them as they approached. Jaime flew up to the sphere and rested a hand on it again and somehow the solid surface parted to admit them. As soon as the clear glass sealed behind them, Kon let out a sigh of relief as the biting fingers of the sun faded away.

“Hey! What are you to doing here? Get out!” The man yelled, his serious expression somewhat muted by the odd golden wraparound goggles he was wearing.

“Whoa, it’s okay. It’s me,” Jaime replied, holding up his hands passively.

“And you would be?”

“Oh, I guess we haven’t met yet then. I’m Blue Beetle and this is Superboy,” Jaime explained.

Kon offered a wave at the blue and gold suited man. He just looked at them.

“And? What do you want?”

“Okay, this might sound weird, but we really, really need you to stop doing what you’re doing.”

“No! Do you have any idea how important this work is? I’m saving my planet from destruction!”

“Booster, look-”

“How do you know my name?”

“Because in my time I know you. You’re a hero and you help people, like I do. You’re a hero.”

Booster Gold puffed out his chest. "Well that makes sense. By why do you want me to _stop_ saving the planet?"

Jaime sighed and took a step closer, raising his hands.“I get what you’re trying to do, I do. But you’re going to end up hurting people and you need to stop.”

“What I’m doing is preserving my home world for the ages. You see that giant sun there? That’s going to go nova in a few years and completely destroy Earth. It’s already eaten two planets but this one here, it’s the cradle of my civilization. Sure, it’s abandoned now but still. Look at it! I can’t let something like that just vanish from existence. “

“So you’re going to trap the Earth in its own time bubble for posterity?” Kon asked.

“Exactly, Superlad! And, of course, the adulation of the people back home when they realise how I’ve saved the world.” Booster Gold almost beamed at that last point.

“…Right,” Kon said.

“No, you can’t. Something goes wrong and the time stasis starts wandering backwards through time. People die.”

Booster frowned at him and rubbed at his chin. “Really. How many people?”

“Booster! Look, we really need you to not start the time stasis.”

“There’s no way something could go wrong like that. This is state of the art technology.”

“But something does go wrong! Badly. Please, Booster,” Jaime begged.

“Hmm. Well, I guess I could go find something else awe-inspiring to do. And I _did_ spill that coffee all over the console.” He ended that last part in a mutter. “You’ll tell people I saved guys, right? 'Cause it's not easy work, saving lives.”

“Yeah, no problem. You’re a hero.” Jaime sighed.

“I saved the president once.”

“That’s awesome dude. Can you disable the field?”

“Oh, yeah. Sure.” Booster turned and started tapping at the complicated machine.

Kon grabbed Jaime by the arm. “So that’s _it_? We ask nicely and everything gets fixed.”

“Well, it’s the best we can do. There’s no telling how the time streams will interact when they snap together-“

“But I’ll work, right?”

“It should, yeah.”

“… But it _will_, right?”

“Statistically there’s a good chance.”

“What? I thought you’d worked this all out!”

“I have as much as I-“

“All done!” Booster yelled as he hit the last button to power down the time stasis field and everything suddenly blazed with a white light.

\---

Tim awoke with a pounding headache and the imprint of the cockpit’s control panel on his forehead. He groaned and rubbed at his face, blinking rapidly when his gloved hand met his domino mask.

“Wha…?” Beside him Wally was just starting to regain consciousness.

“Err.” Tim closed his eyes tight and then opened them again, wondering why on Earth he was looking at stars. “Wa’s going on?”

Flash was rubbing at the back of his neck. “You’re asking me?”

Tim shakily got to his feet, lurching when his muscles complained at the movement. How long had he been out? There were traces of thoughts itching at the back of his consciousness but for some reason they wouldn’t step into the light. He was just working out the readings scrolling before him when a large spaceship skimmed over their windows, blocking out the light.

“Whoa!” Wally yelled.

Tim frowned at it then glanced at a viewscreen where their sensors were automatically tracking the other ship’s movements. He watched the heavily armed ship – a fighter? – move towards a large freighter and in-between then, hanging motionless, were the smooth, familiar lines of the Javelin. Then it all came flooding back.

“Oh my god, they’re there. Wally, they’re there!” Tim yelled as he pointed at out the windows at the Javelin.

“Hey, we did it!” Kon yelled as he barreled through the door, Jaime close on his heels. “We stopped the time screwup!”

Wally leaped up and slapped a hand on Kon’s shoulder and ruffled Jaime’s hair, much to the younger man’s annoyance. Tim scanned the control panel for the communications relay.

“Batman, Superman, come in? Javelin, come in?”

Silence replied.

Tim gasped when Kon bounded over to him and wrapped him in a bear hug from behind. “We did it!” he yelled in Tim’s ear.

Tim pushed him away half-heartedly and repeated his call. The communications panel beeped once and Wally leaned over to read the message. “Er, okay. That was a translated message from one of those other ships. They say they humbly cede salvage rights to our superior firepower, but if we use our blackout weapon again they’re going to call the Green Lanterns on us.”

“Whatever,” Kon snorted. “How come they’re not responding?”

Tim’s face went passive. “I don’t know.”

“I think we should go over there and check it out,” Jaime suggested.

“Good idea,” Tim answered and they all filed out the door for the docking bay.

Tim was deep in thought as he jogged down the ship with the others, balancing shuttle prep-lists with temporal causality. As he passed by the cargo areas just before the docking bay he didn’t see the blue and red figure step out in front of him until it was too late. A second later he was sitting flat on his arse on the cold metal floor holding his nose.

“Tim! I’m so sorry, are you okay?”

Large hands rested on his shoulders as the man crouched before him and Tim was greeted with a pair of ethereal blue eyes he thought he’d never see again.

“I didn’t see you at all there. Are you okay?”

“Clark!” A blur blitzed by Tim as Kon launched himself at Clark and pulled him into a hug.

“Kon, what’s-“ Clark’s question was broken off as a single loud sob escaped from Kon’s throat. Clark returned the hug then, wrapping strong arms around Kon’s back. “It’s alright, it’s alright. What’s going on?”

“That’s a very good question.” A rasp came from the shadows filling the open cargo bay door beside Superman. “What’s going on here? And what the hell are you doing with my ship?”

\---

It took most of the trip home to completely convey just what had occurred in the past few weeks. Batman was incredulous at first, but the presence of his own work in the Lance was hard to dismiss. Clark was horrified as Kon recounted how various people back home had dealt with their loss with varying degrees of success. When Dick started talking about how they’d first found their bodies on the planet, and the house filled with time, dust and books Clark kept throwing glances at Bruce, who wouldn’t return them. Eventually the questions dwindled and Green Lantern and Wally left to prepare the ship for its docking at the Watchtower as others left to make calls to Earth and spread the news.

A short time later Clark walked into the sleeping quarters empty except for Bruce who was standing next to the bed fingering the heavy, worn patchwork blanket.

“It’s funny how some things stayed and some things changed,” Clark said, walking up to him.

Batman just grunted in return.

Clark just smiled softly and sat on the bed next to where Bruce was standing. “Where do you think we were while the time streams were getting sorted.”

“We were dead, Clark.”

Clark snorted. “I know that, but where do you think _we_ were? ‘Us’, our souls, whatever they are.”

“We were in a state of temporal flux. We weren’t anywhere.”

“Well I feel like I’ve been sleeping.”

Only Bruce’s eyes moved to look at Clark. Superman leaned towards him and reached to the hand that was holding the blanket, wrapping his own hand around Bruce’s .

“And I had the most incredible dream.”

Clark used his grip on Bruce’s hand to pull him down towards him, and Bruce didn’t resist.

\---  
\--  
-

  
**Epilogue**

The Watchtower records were in a shambles. Bruce kept reminding himself that in the end somehow they’d all been missing just under a week Earth-time but it was hard to believe his careful file management systems could get so abused in that short space of time. He’d spent the last three hours trying to sort the mess into some semblance of order. He knew the rest of the League didn’t share his need for organisation, but that’s why they needed him so badly. His League communicator kept going off. He only answered it the third time to stop its annoying chirrup.

“Batman,” he answered absently.

“Are you still playing with the computer?” Even the tiny speakers of the communicator couldn’t dampen Clark’s cheery tones.

“We need to get the files in order if we-“

“No, you need them in order.”

“Superman-“

“And they’re probably fine just as they are, they’re just not to Bat standards.”

“_Superman_-“

“Come meet me.”

“What?”

“Come meet me.”

“Where?”

“Just lock on to my co-ordinates. Come civilian.”

Clark cut the connection and Bruce sighed. But five minutes later he was transporting down to the location the computer had determined. He squinted in the sudden bright sunlight and raised a hand to shade his eyes. The air was dry and dusty and the glare off the low, whitewashed buildings was intense. None of that seemed to bother Clark, who was sitting casually on a park bench under a tree on the footpath. Bruce walked over and sat beside him, gratefully taking his sunglasses off.

“Clark, what are we doing here?”

“Guess where we are.”

“Thirty five degrees, seven minutes south. A hundred and forty seven, twenty two minutes east.”

“No, I said guess.”

Bruce scanned the surroundings. The road the bench was facing was very wide, with cars parked diagonally along both sides. Pedestrians were sparse and seemed to be in no great hurry for anything. Both sides of the street were lined with one or two story buildings, most of which with glass fronted shops at the street level. No one was paying any attention to the two men sitting on the bench except for two black and tan dogs sitting the back of a dusty ute, which occasionally gave them a considering glance. Bruce examined the signs on of the shops along the street that weren’t boarded up.

“Wagga Wagga?”

Clark beamed at him. Bruce gave in to Clark’s game with a defeated sigh. “Clark, why are we in Wagga Wagga?”

“Did you know that Australia is extremely geologically stable?”

“Clark.”

“There’s places here were the rocks are almost four billion years old. Well, not _here_ here, but elsewhere on the continent. That’s almost as old as the Earth itself.”

“That’s it, I’m cancelling your subscription to National Geographic.”

“Bruce, I’m serious. This place has been here a very, very long time. And it will be here for a very, very long time.” Clark looked at him expectantly. “You don’t recognise it?”

Bruce took another visual sweep of the area. Nothing had changed. The shops still lined the empty street. Further away he could see rising roofs as the small town eased up the side of a hill.

“This is where we lived.”

Bruce’s snarky reply died on his lips as he suddenly followed Clark’s non-sequitur logic. “Really? Here?”

“Yeah, it really is. I had the Fortress computer figure it out. You can almost see it too. The river running down to the south, the forest used to be up there in the east. “ Clark started gesturing with his hands and as he pointed out different aspects, Bruce imagined he could almost see those future-lost places in the heat haze. A small smile crossed his face. Clark casually threw an arm over his shoulders.

“Welcome home.”

The smile on Clark’s face was softer than Superman’s charming grin but more open than the reporter’s shy grimace. It was a lover’s smile at the same time it felt brilliant and elusive but familiar and worn, like Bruce had seen it every day for most of his days. And somewhere, sometime, he had. Bruce wanted to grab Clark and kiss him and make that smile his own all over again. But sitting on a park bench in the middle of nowhere wasn’t the place for that. Instead, he shook Clark’s arm off and got to his feet, ignoring the sudden disappointment in Clark’s eyes.

“You know,” Bruce announced in his best bored playboy drawl, “I’m rather in the mood to buy a house.”

Clark blinked at him. “Here?”

Bruce shrugged. “Might as well.”

Clark paused for a moment, then his smile was back in full force. “I like the sound of that. A home away from home. “

“Good,” Bruce replied. Because Clark understood, knew exactly what Bruce was trying to say even when Bruce wasn’t entirely sure himself or when the words got stuck in his throat. Because words like ‘I love you’ and ‘I’m yours forever’ sounded cliché and inane outside of Hallmark cards and Bruce was never good at sentiment. But he was a man of action. “Let’s go.”

“Right now?” Clark climbed to his feet.

“Absolutely. Buy a house together, right now.”

They did.


End file.
